The present invention relates generally to techniques for providing decision support, and in particular to techniques for visualizing and relationships among marketing and other business information.
Decision support technologies provide business information consumers with tools and techniques for analyzing information. Techniques such as statistics, report generators, such as On Line Analytical Processing (OLAP), and so forth, provide ways for business decision makers to use business information in making business decisions. However, many conventional approaches are often limited in scope or capability, providing only a static view of the whole picture.
While certain advantages to conventional approaches are perceived, opportunities for further improvement exist. For example, according to conventional technologies, modeling of data is done using rudimentary database relationship diagrams. While these diagrams explain the information in a manner understandable to database system programmers and other such persons having a technical background, these methods are not convenient for business and marketing professionals.
What is needed are improved techniques for business and marketing professionals in managing and analyzing information.